Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Edgewater Rockford, IL

Rockford is a city on both banks of the Rock River in Winnebago County in far northern Illinois, and it is the county seat of Winnebago County.

Rockford traces its roots to 1834, when the combined settlements of Midway were founded on both banks of the Rock River — Germanicus Kent and Thatcher Blake settled the west bank as Kentville, while Daniel Shaw Haight settled the east bank.

The settlement was first called Midway because the Rock River site sat about halfway between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, and between Galena and Chicago on the stagecoach line.

Rockford was incorporated as a town in 1839 and was chartered as a city on January 3, 1852.

With a population of 148,655 at the 2020 census, Rockford is the fifth-most populous city in Illinois and the most populous Illinois city outside the Chicago metropolitan area, with a metropolitan area of about 337,000 residents.

The 2010 census counted 152,871 people and 66,700 households in Rockford.

Rockford is nicknamed the Forest City for its heavily forested residential neighborhoods, and it was also known as the Screw Capital of the World for its machine-tool and fastener manufacturing.

Rockford is home to the Anderson Japanese Gardens, continually ranked among the top Japanese gardens in the United States, as well as the Klehm Arboretum and the Tinker Swiss Cottage museum.

The historic Coronado Theatre in downtown Rockford opened on October 9, 1927, seats about 2,400 people, and has been known as Rockford's Wonder Theatre.

Rockford's Burpee Museum of Natural History is known for its dinosaur exhibits, including a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Jane.